Ian Cook, a Napier resident with a mobility impairment, is a vocal advocate for urgent improvements to the city's accessibility. Photo / Paul Taylor
Ian Cook, a Napier resident with a mobility impairment, is a vocal advocate for urgent improvements to the city's accessibility. Photo / Paul Taylor
Residents of Napier with disabilities argue that the city has a long way to go with its accessibility.
Napier City Council began a mobility parking review in June which involved a survey distributed to mobility parking holders, with submissions now closed.
Ian Cook, a Napier resident with a mobility impairment,has lived in the city for eight years.
He had been nursing his wife who also had mobility issues, and required a wheelchair, until she passed away at the beginning of the year.
He feels as though he has not seen much improvement in the city's accessibility in the time he has lived here.
"I became aware that Napier wasn't really a very inclusive place when you're mobility impaired."
He said Napier City council said it consulted with disability advisory groups, like Napier Disability Advisory Group and Napier Ability Plus, but he didn't think it was working to effect change, particularly with mobility parking.
"There are a lot of things with the design of mobility parks that don't appear to have been considered before.
"These days you've got a lot of rear-loading vehicles with hoists or lifts in the back of them and the standard mobility park wasn't long enough to operate those."
He said the people directly affected would like to see the plans for any potential new parking before any money is spent on them as a solution to the poor design.
He said access from the road on to the kerb again through "kerb-cuts" for wheelchair or scooter users was also inadequate and unsafe.
"I know of people who have had to take the safety wheels off the back of their wheelchairs because they couldn't get across them, I know of people who have gotten stranded in traffic because they couldn't get back up on the other side."
He said there have been more improvements in the city more recently since last year.
He started a Facebook group called Accessible Napier as a platform for people to share experiences and it has opened a dialogue with council representatives who have taken an interest and joined the group.
As part of a submission to Napier City Council, Ian Cook took pictures of the poor placement of kerb cuts which would be blocked by a vehicle in mobility parking. Photo / Ian Cook
Awhina Hollis-English said her daughter Rāmari has a wheelchair for her Spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, which makes her non-verbal and non-ambulatory.
She agreed with Ian, saying people with mobility impairments often required larger vehicles or modifications and often couldn't use the mobility parking that was available.
"Quite often there will be a park where the kerb cut is blocked by the vehicle and there is not enough space to get around the vehicle to get to the kerb cut so you end up having to go into traffic."
She says she hardly ever takes her daughter to the shops.
"But then I think if there was better parking, maybe I would and she would get used to it."
She said there were a lot of mobility parking in Napier, but most was not usable to people with disabilities.
"We were driving around to see which parks we could use and there was maybe one park in all of Napier where I could unload my daughter from the van and then get up on to the kerb cut without going into traffic."
A Napier City Council spokesperson said they received the draft of the Mobility Parking review on Thursday and it will be finalised in August.
As of the last council survey in 2020, there were 56 mobility car parks under the council's jurisdiction - 45 around the Napier CBD, nine in Taradale, one in Greenmeadows and one in Ahuriri.
The spokesperson said some of the things the Napier City Council Disability Strategy 2019-2023 had achieved so far included Audits of signalled intersections to determine accessibility, Translation of key Council documents into accessible formats and accessible meetings, an All-Terrain Wheelchair available for free hire and use and more.
Funding for disability providers, agencies, support groups, and disabled people through Community Services Grants, Community Development Grants, and Creative Communities Scheme has also been a part of this.
According to the Napier City council Disability Strategy 2019 - 2023, 27 per cent of people in Napier have a disability and 9747 people in Napier had a physical disability as of 2019.
